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03-Dec-2002

Peace activists occupy Finnish Embassy in Brussels

by: For Mother Earth

Activists involved in embassy occupation display "welcome to Finland" subvertise..
PHOTO: For Mother Earth , international@motherearth.org

Brussels: Activists of For Mother Earth and Forum voor Vredesactie occupied the Finnish embassy in Brussels at 2 pm this afternoon. The occupants demanded immediate release of Finnish political prisoners and changes in Finnish law concerning conscientious objection to national service. A demonstration outside the embassy supported the occupation, which ended at 15:30 when two activists (from the UK and Finland) got arrested in the embassy by Brussels police. Both of them got release in the street outside the embassy.

During the occupation the activists opened a "counter information desk" in the embassy, providing information about the situation of the Finnish conscientious objectors (COs), who have to serve 197 in prison because of their refusal to take part in the military/alternative service system. The activists decorated the embassy walls with posters "Welcome to Finland -where refusing to kill is a Crime", while others held banners and chalked names of imprisoned total objectors on the pavement in front of the embassy.

Since 1999 there has been 33 prisoners of conscience in Finland adopted by the human rights organisation Amnesty International. One Finnish conscientious objector, Jussi Hermaja, seeks political asylum in Belgium after being sentenced to jail for 6 ½ months because of refusing national service. The Finnish CO’s are the only prisoners in the European Union that Amnesty International has adopted as prisoners of conscience -or, political prisoners- because of the excessive length of the alternative service (13 months) compared to the military service (6 months).

United Nations and Council of Europe have recognised the right to CO, and it is written in different human rights declarations and resolutions. The latest resolution was adopted by the UN Commission on Human Rights on 23 April 2002. Still, the Finnish Government refuses to change their legislation, and every year a growing number of CO’s are sentenced to prison, reaching this year over sixty young men.

The Finnish state, as well as other states too, must release all prisoners of conscience immediately. Those sentenced must be given amnesty. To prevent such situations in future, the state must provide information about military service and it's different alternatives on an equal basis. The alternatives must include no service at all and non-violent service. The right to conscientious objection must be recognised universally, including crisis- or wartime, and all people must be treated equally no matter what their basis for conscientious objection is.

According to the Union of Conscientious Objectors' in Finland (UCOF), the Finnish state has not provided information about the different alternatives to military service on an equal basis. This Autumn when the activists of UCOF tried to provide information about the alternatives to military service to young men arriving at the enrolment for military service, the police violently prevented them from doing that.

There has been no status defined in the Finnish law for conscientious objectors during crisis time. During the last crisis, World War II, conscientious objectors (CO's) were executed by Finnish army officers. Members of Jehova’s Witnesses, a religious group, are released from national service on the basis of their religious conscience. While other Finnish CO’s are imprisoned the situation is clearly unequal.

Press Contacts:
Hans Lammerant (Forum voor Vredesactie) tel: +32-479-68 24 43
Jussi Hermaja (For Mother Earth) tel: +32-472-63 67 98

Video footage available from Finnish broadcasting company YLE, tel: +358 40 589 2842

More info:

www.motherearth.org/CO
www.hermaja.org
www.aseistakieltaytyjaliitto.fi

-------------------------------------
Voor Moeder Aarde
Maria Hendrikaplein 5-6
9000 Gent
Tel: 09-242.87.52
Fax: 09-242.87.51
E-mail: international@motherearth.org

Source: For Mother Earth